Our School

About Us

Tanana Junior High School serves about 420 students in grades 7 and 8 on the east side of Fairbanks, Alaska. About one third of our students are part of families with a member serving at Fort Wainwright, a US Army post adjacent to the school. Our feeder schools are Arctic Light Elementary, Ladd Elementary, Weller Elementary, Nordale Elementary and Joy Elementary. After leaving Tanana, most of our students move to Lathrop High School.

Fairbanks is Alaska's second largest city and lies in the broad Tanana River Valley, to the north of Denali, North America's highest peak. Our economy is based around oil and mineral development, tourism, and government. This is a part of Alaska that matches the descriptions found in the novels of Jack London. You need not go very far to see moose, bear, salmon.

Extreme cold and the long periods of darkness make winters here unique in the US. On the Winter Solstice the sun is above the horizon for 3 hours and 41 minutes, though there are 6 hours and 33 minutes of visible light. Our average winter temperature is about minus 12ºF, but we regularly get spells of minus 40ºF to minus 50ºF. Our record low was minus 62ºF. In the face of this, our students and staff enjoy being out of doors for alpine and nordic skiing, snowboarding, Skijoring (skiing while pulled by dogs), dog mushing, snow-machining, ice-fishing and hockey. The aurora borealis is directly overhead, so we see spectacular displays many times each winter. In March (still winter), Fairbanks hosts an international ice carving competition that brings carvers and tourists from many areas of the world.

Summer provides a different extreme in Fairbanks. On the Summer Solstice, the sun is above the horizon for 21 hours and 51 minutes, and there is no darkness in June or July. Long sunsets become long sunrises. Our average summer temperature is 61ºF, and typically the temperature reaches into the low 70's, the all time record high being 96ºF. Each summer we have several weeks where the temp reaches into the 80's. Most of us are a tad uncomfortable when that happens. Our students and staff enjoy a different set of activities during the fabulous summers, including swimming, fishing, hiking, camping, gardening, biking, skateboarding, four-wheeling, baseball and more.

Tanana Middle School encourages our parents to be active at Tanana! Please feel free to come eat with your child at lunch or visit a classroom or volunteer for a school event. We also are in need of parents wanting to take part in renewing our Parent Organization. Please contact Jethro Jones, Principal, at 452-8145 ext. 14510.